Lawsuit: Nursing home hired strippers for residents

NEW YORK – A nursing home faces a lawsuit after strippers put on a show for elderly residents.

The suit was filed after one resident's family member found a picture of the event.

"I felt terrible, I was shaken, and he told me what to do," 85-year-old Bernice Youngblood said, describing how it felt to put money into a nearly naked stripper's underwear.

She says her nurses told her to do it.

Youngblood's son, Franklin, found out about the incident when he discovered a shocking photo in his mom's drawer. He also says she was forced to tip with her own personal cash, which was supposed to be under lock and key by the facility.

"Too much sex and craziness going on now in the nursing home, and it doesn't belong here," he said.

The photo also shows other residents looking on at the East Neck Nursing Center in West Babylon. But it also shows a woman, seemingly enjoying the moment, who nursing home lawyers say belongs to Youngblood's extended family.

The nursing home attorney says the facility has a board run by elderly residents, pointing out it was them who agreed to the so-called entertainment event.

Bobbie Sackman, with the Council of Senior Centers and Services, says she's never heard of a stripper at a nursing home in her 40 year career, and it's inappropriate as group entertainment.

"They do want to have sex at 80 or 90, that is appropriate," Sackman said. "This was a situation of a woman with vast Alzheimer's, and she didn't know what was going on."

It's a battle hitting everyone, from attorneys to residents and it has people here and elsewhere debating just what is appropriate and what isn't in the senior years.